And Now The Screaming Starts

S. C. Johnson

at 10:09 am

This is a classic horror in my opinion made in the era of most of the best horror films. The film begins with a Hound of the Baskervilles type of storyline where a wealthy landowner decides to use his power to have his wicked way with a newly wed. The husband, a wood cutter who works on the landowner’s land then takes revenge on the family by means of a curse. Set in a typical old manor house the grandson of the landowner falls foul to the woodcutter’s curse. Peter Cushing, Stephanie Beecham and that actor who played in the lead role of the seventies series of “The Saint” all star. A few screams take place in this film as the title indicates, although the chopped off hand that moves by itself is a little far fetched. I like this film because I like the typical manor house setting and the fact that its not another vampire story. Not a bad plot and fairly well acted it ticks all the boxes for me. Worth adding to anyone’s collection.
Rating: 4 / 5

Mr. Jonathon T. Beckett

at 1:30 pm

When Charles Fengriffen takes his new bride Catherine to his anscestral home, strange things start to happen. Catherine seems strangely drawn to the portrait of Charles’s grandfather Henry, and also sees an eyeless apparition at the window, as well as being attacked in her bed. Is she going mad, or are there more sinister forces at work? Meanwhile a spectral severed hand is going round strangling anybody who tries to help.

This film has a great cast, and an established genre director, but seems strangely flat. There are moments of great style, but they are few and far between, and it just feels like a mish mash of every British gothic horror from the previous decade. Amicus should probably kept to making horror set in the present day, as this rare foray into gothic territory is not one of their best. Theres nothing terrible about the film, it just feels a bit stale, and fails to either scare or excite this viewer at least.

3 out of 5, but it could have been so much better
Rating: 3 / 5